Pierre Werner and Jacques Santer Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences 1998

Gathered together in Oviedo, the Jury for the 1998 Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences, comprised of Gonzalo Anes y Álvarez de Castrillón, Íñigo Cavero Lataillade, Álvaro Cuervo García, Eugenio Domingo Solans, Javier Fernández Costales, Andrés Fernández Díaz, Manuel Jesús González González, Luis González Seara, María del Carmen Iglesias Cano, Rafael Jiménez de Parga Cabrera, Manuel Menéndez Menéndez, José Manuel Otero Novas, Manuel Pizarro Moreno, Victoria Rodríguez Escudero, presided over by Aurelio Menéndez Menéndez, and with José López-Muñiz y González-Madroño acting as secretary, has unanimously decided to grant the 1998 Prince of Asturias Award for the Social Sciences to Pierre Werner and Jacques Santer, for their contributions to the process of European monetary integration that has culminated in the creation of the Euro. Pierre Werner was president of the committee of experts that laid down the groundwork for the European economic and monetary union in 1970. Jacques Santer is the current President of the European Commission, during whose term of office the union has been formalised. Through them it is further hoped that the contribution of all those persons and institutions taking part in the project of European integration will be acknowledged. Eleven countries submitting themselves to the monetary sovereignty of the European Union has important implications in the fields of politics, economics, law, sociology, history, and, in general, all the social sciences. This process of integration will help to consolidate stability in a globalised economy, stimulate advancement toward European political unity, and strengthen the development of a community, infusing it with greater solidarity and social cohesion.

Oviedo, 5th June 1998